Songs of Innocence
IntroductionThe ShepherdThe Echoing GreenThe LambThe Little Black BoyThe BlossomThe Chimney-SweeperThe Little Boy LostThe Little Boy FoundLaughing SongA Cradle SongThe Divine ImageHoly ThursdayNightSpringNurse’s SongInfant JoyA DreamOn Another’s Sorrow
About this text
Songs of Innocence is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Project Gutenberg ebook #1934; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, Songs of Innocence, in Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1934, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-songs/songs-of-innocence.html, id L02867.
Form and metre
Songs of Innocence is 19 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 3.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 100% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-ABCB---DD----DC-- introductionA · shepherd · greenA · lambB · boyC · blossomB · sweeper · lost · found · songD · songD · image · thursday · night · spring · songD · joyC · dream · sorrow
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| The Shepherd | 3 | ·/˘ |
| The Echoing Green | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| The Lamb | 2 | ·· |
| The Little Black Boy | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The Blossom | 3 | ·/˘ |
| The Chimney-Sweeper | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| The Little Boy Lost | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The Little Boy Found | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Laughing Song | 3 | /˘· |
| A Cradle Song | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The Divine Image | 5 | ·˘//˘ |
| Holy Thursday | 4 | /˘/· |
| Night | 1 | · |
| Spring | 1 | · |
| Nurse’s Song | 3 | /˘· |
| Infant Joy | 3 | /˘· |
| A Dream | 2 | ·· |
| On Another’s Sorrow | 6 | ·˘/˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.